The invention relates generally to power-driven conveyors and, more particularly, to a conveyor using a conveyor belt with rollers arranged to rotate about axes oblique to the direction of belt travel.
Many conveying applications require that conveyed articles of a variety of sizes and shapes be aligned single file in a specific orientation for downstream processing or inspection. Sometimes the width of the conveyor or of the entrance into a processing station is limited. In the case of articles having a generally rectangular footprint, with a minor axis and a longer major axis, the major axis or the diagonal can be longer than the width of the conveyor. If the major axis of an oversized conveyed article is arranged on the conveyor belt with its long axis across the width of the belt, the article can jam between the sides of the conveyor. Manual intervention is then required to free the jam. Consequently, there is a need for a conveyor that can align and orient articles of a variety of sizes and shapes to prevent jamming on width-restricted conveyor sections.